Friday, April 25, 2008

I'm a legal alien...

Now I'm again legally in Mexico; I finally got my visa decision on Wednesday. But I still have to get my actual visa (a green booklet) made. First I was told it would take almost a month more to get it, but after I begged desperately, they promised it would be ready in couple of weeks. I really hope so! If I don't get it in time, I will lose the whole semester and all the classes I have taken at the university.

On Wednesday I also visited Ashes and Snow, Gregory Colbert's exposition that has been in Zócalo (City's main plaza) since January. The photos and videos are incredibly beautiful and poetic! There were thousands of people and the day was very hot (32 Celsius degrees), which made the experience quite tiring, but I'm still very happy I visited the Nomadic Museum. If the exposition ever comes to your city, you definitively should visit it! And if it doesn't, the web page (see the link above) gives you a good idea of the exposition.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Lots of things to do...

... and everything at the same time...


Things seems to be accumulating right now. I have to present some research results at the university during the May, finish an article (also during May), try to invent themes for some conference papers (inventing isn't that hard, really, but then some day soon I'll have to write those papers too), start my custom yarn painting in these days too...

And as that wasn't enough to do for a while, I also promised to work as a facilitator in two workshops. The first one will be next week - it was going to start already on this Thursday, but luckily the plans changed. All this came up last Friday, so there really hasn't been much time for planning or preparing things. The materials for the workshop isn't very useful either, so I have to invent a lot on educational management in the schools, which isn't my area at all. The participants will be supervisors and directors of schools, probably mainly elder men. I have worked as a facilitator in workshops, but they were for teenagers and children, so this is going to be quite different. In total the workshop will last three days, ten hour days each. I'll be there all by my own - there are other facilitators in the same city (Chilpancingo) for these workshops, but we are all in different schools. Sooooo.... it will be interesting!


But even though I'm not very well prepared and the participants may not be the easiest audience (though I'm definitively not going to let them minimize me for being a young woman), I'm still happy to be part of these workshops. And not only because they are quite well paid! I think it will be a great - and challenging - learning experience.


Any way, with all these things to be done, I have finished something too. This bracelet was a custom order for Jonna. As she lives by the sea, it's called "A Day on a Beach". I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and hope Jonna will love it too!


Monday, April 14, 2008

The Fox hoodie is ready...

Actually it has been ready for couple of weeks already, but my official photographer - known also as my boyfriend - couldn't help me to take the pictures until now. But here are finally some:

Yarn: La Cusqueñita ( 45% acryllic, 40% alpaca, 15 % wool)
Needles: 4 mm
Pattern: mine
I'm quite happy with the result, even though I should have made the hoodie longer and the sleeves shorter. I shouldn't have taken the measures from existing hoodie. Well, you always learn something, don't you? Next time I'll just measure myself.
The yarn is a bit itchy (the blue Cusqueñita that I used for boyfriends hoodie for some reason tickles less). It helped a bit to wash it with softener, but that also made the sleeves even longer (and no, I didn't hang it). But I think I will use it a lot any way, because I just love the colour.

Oh, and I just had to start a new project, too. I think I'm getting really addicted to knitting (boyfriend thinks that too: "You just can't put your needles down, can you?"). I wanted to make a tunic, but as the yarn I bought (Emilia, Mexican yarn that is 100% cotton) seems to be quite heavy and not very nice to knit, I'll make just a top. It will probably stretch a bit anyway... The flower pattern is from Garnstudio's dress.

But these coming weeks I'll probably be concentrating more on yarn paintings (and studies, of course...) than on knitting. I finally got some chipboard and showed yesterday to boyfriend that I can actually use a saw without problems. Today I also got a custom order for totem animal yarn painting in Etsy. I so excited! I'm sure it will be just so much fun to make!